The advent of nanocarbons (e.g., graphene, fullerenes, and nanotubes) has generated a renewed interest in the metal industry to create new metal alloys that incorporate these forms of carbon. Nanocarbons have significantly improved properties (e.g., strength, thermal conductivity, or electrical conductivity) over traditional carbon forms such as carbon black, activated carbon, carbon fibers, or graphite. As such, their successful inclusion into metal matrices is poised to create alloys having enhanced properties with respect to the properties of the host metals.
Such alloys are called covetics, a relatively new class of metal-carbon composites, and they have been shown to include sp3 carbon domains in a metal matrix. However, several difficulties exist in synthesizing covetics, thus impeding their widespread use in a wide variety of applications. One such difficulty is that carbon is inherently insoluble in metal because it repels metal atoms. This means that carbon surfaces cannot be wetted by the liquid metal during the covetics forming process, and very few metal-carbon domains are formed in the metal matrix of a typical covetic. Moreover, these domains are randomly distributed over the metal matrix. Another difficulty is the creation of metal carbides that can degrade the property of the composite.
To circumvent these issues, nanocarbons are typically formed externally from the liquid metal and incorporation of the nanocarbons in the metal matrix is then attempted. However, for most metals having relevant industrial use, such as transition metals, the high temperatures needed to melt the metal to create the liquid metal leads to the unwanted decomposition of the pre-made nanocarbons. As such, there is a need for forming nanocarbons in-situ, i.e. during the alloying process, by starting from a non-nanocarbon source.